BB: I've read that charging the relatives for the ammo is a Chinese ornamentation of the policies of repression. Has it been done elsewhere?

This just in NY Times:

Russia Reopens Case of Murdered Journalist


MOSCOW — A day after a Moscow jury acquitted all three suspects in the murder of the prominent investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the presiding judge ordered the case reopened Friday.

The judge, Yevgeni Zubov, ordered the Russian Investigative Committee to reopen the case and told the Interfax news agency that he would give investigators material evidence.